Women's Basketball 2022-23

We lost. 'Nuff said.

Back home on Thursday against Drake. 

Drake. Oh, joy. 

Posted by: @rabidsaluki

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We lost. 'Nuff said.

Ouch! Lady Dawgs must have toured Nashville on Saturday night. 

SIU 7-10 (4-4) vs Drake 11-5 (6-2)

Thursday January 24, 6pm at Banterra Center

Streaming ESPN+

Audio Saluki Sports Network/95.1 Steve FM

WarrenNolan.com Prediction: Drake -19

The Drake Bulldogs….

Drake is coached by The Suzie Glazier Burt Head Women’s Basketball Coach, Allison Pohlman. I love it when some rich booster’s name is incorporated into a basketball coaches title. It must make them think they are better than everyone else! Allison Pohlman, SGBHWBC (It kinda makes her look like she’s got a knighthood?) is in her second year as Drake’s Suzie Glazier Burt Head Women’s Basketball Coach. Coach Pohlman SGB…yada yada yada, you get the idea - has been on staff at Drake since 2007. Pohlman is no stranger to The Valley; prior to Drake she was at UNI as a coach and player. As a player she was a runner up Valley Player of the Year to the woman the award is named after - Jackie Stiles. Drake is basically back to being Drake this season after a “down” 2021-22 campaign in which the Bulldogs went 20-14 (9-9) 6^th place finish in The Valley and a 3^rd round exit in the women’s NIT. Drake currently sits in solo third behind UNI and ISU-R.

Last year we swept the season series with them for the first time since 2007. Drake leads in this series that dates back to 1979 – 64-30. We have no common non-conference opponents. Drake played three ranked teams in Iowa (L) Creighton (L) and Nebraska (W). Iowa is the only one of the three that is still ranked. 

Drake is 51 NET 81 RPI 105 SOS

Tale Of The Tape:

                             DU        SIU

PPG                      81.6       71.2      

Pts Allowed         67.6       75.5

FG%                      .482       .406

FG% OPP             .367       .426

3pt%                     .319       .341

3pt % OPP           .314       .365

FT%                       .734       .677

Rebounds            44.4       37.1

Reb OPP              33.3       40.4

Assists                  20.8       14.4

Turnovers           18.1       15.2      

T/O Forced          14.7       18

Steals                   8.2         10.2

Blocks                  5.9         4.4

Offensive Rtg     28           147

                              105.1     92.7

Defensive Rtg    88           307

                              86.6       97.7

Pace of Play        21           17

                              76.4       76.9

Drake’s Valley rankings: #1 scoring, #1 FG%, #1 FG% defense, #1 Rebounding, #1 assists, #1 assist t/o ratio, #1 blocks and #2 in steals. Drake is ranked nationally as #9 FG%, #8 rebounds, #3 in assists and #4 in blocks per game.

Bulldogs Dramatis Personae –

Drake is big, they are deep, and they have veterans. Here are the headliners –

Maggie Bair a 6-3 Senior forward that is 8^th nationally in FG% at 62% averages 15.5 ppg 8.3 rebounds and has 26 blocks on the season.

Grace Berg a 6 foot Redshirt Senior forward that averages 12.8 ppg, 5.6 rebounds and has 53 assists.

Katie Dinnebier a 5-8 Sophomore guard that averages 11.3 a game and has 81 assists.

Sara Gweldner is a 5-9 Senior guard that averages 10.3 points per game

Anna Miller is a 6-3 Sophomore who is averaging 8.4 ppg (11 PPG in conference play) and has 35 blocks.

The Bulldogs had another player, Megan Meyer a senior guard who was The Valley's Newcomer Of The Year last year, that was averaging 13 points per game but was lost for the season back in December.

SIU At A Glance…

On paper this game looks ugly. But they don’t play games on paper. It still could be ugly. It might not be Belmont or MTSU ugly (MTSU is now ranked) but if this gets out of hand quickly, it could head that direction. Especially since we are down a post player in S. Hughes. The only thing we have going for us is we are at home. Hopefully, the shooting woes from Belmont were left in Nashville and the team that showed up at Murray is on display. Jaidynn Mason was the only Saluki in double figures at Belmont, but it took her 15 shots to get there. There were so many shots that were rolling around the rim and not going down – it was crazy. Even the Belmont announcers commented on it. And on the other side – a mediocre streaky shooting Belmont team was lights out. Its not as if we laid down and gave up – Belmont just whooped us. The Belmont announcers called that too.

This starts a four game homestand and it doesn’t get any easier with first place UNI on Saturday. It's not as if we are dead in the water either. We’re 4-4 in conference with two close calls that we could be 6-2.

GO DAWGS!!!

Interesting....

Freshman Mason in the starting lineup tonight. 

After one....

SIU 23

DRAKE 18

Hanging tough. Going toe to toe physically with the Bulldogs.

Halftime

Still matching Bulldogs physically. Jones with 16 at the half. We were up 9 at one point. Out rebounding them 21-12

SIU 42 

DRAKE 43

After 3...

SIU 64

DRAKE 63

Jones with 28! Holmes with 14. Still out rebounding them. Fouls piling up. Defensive hustle is as intense as I've seen this team this year. 

Drake defense posting a shutout here in the 4th. Nearly six minutes without a basket. Drake back door-ing us to death. 

Final. 

SOUTHERN 73

DRAKE 87

We gave it a shot. Think we may have ran out of gas. Went nearly 7 minutes without a basket in the fourth. Outscored 24-9 in the fourth. 

Jones with 30. Holmes with 14. 

SIU 7-11 (4-5 /7^th) vs UNI 12-6 (7-2 /2^nd)

Saturday Jan 28, 2pm Banterra Center

ESPN3 / 95.1 Steve FM

WarrenNolan.com Prediction: UNI -14

Let’s Meet The Panthers, Shall We?

Here’s yet another long-time UNI Coach, Tanya Warren. Don’t know what they put in the water (or their contracts) up in Frostbite Falls but Coach Warren is currently in her 17^th year along with men’s coach Ben Jacobsen and football coach Mark Farley (22 yrs?). Coach Warren’s record coming into this season is 283-201. Her teams have missed post-season play only four times in her tenure, one of them being the COVID cancelled post-season. She was an assistant under our former coach Cindy Stien at Mizzou. Coach Warren has only won two MVC regular season titles but is a steady winner.

UNI has controlled the series in recent years as they lead 46-35. We’ve only beat them five times in the last decade and the last win in Frostbite Falls was in 2016. We split the season series last year each winning on their home court.

UNI is currently 61 NET 61 RPI 74 SOS.

Tale Of The Tape:

                             UNI        SIU

PPG                      74.4       71.3      

Pts Allowed         66.8       76.1

FG%                      .444       .407

FG% OPP             .397       .434

3pt%                     .336       .347

3pt % OPP           .310       .365

FT%                       .633       .680

Rebounds            36.7       36.9

Reb OPP              37.4       40.1

Assists                  12.7       14.3

Turnovers           12.3       15.5      

T/O Forced          14.8       18

Steals                   7.6         10.2

Blocks                  4.1         4.4

Offensive Rtg     47           147

                              100.4     92.7

Defensive Rtg    196         319

                              91.8       98.3

Pace of Play        79           17

                              73.3       77.0

Statistically the Panthers aren’t as flashy as the other MVC leaders. They run mostly in the middle of the pack, but are 2^nd in scoring, 2^nd in field goal percentage and 3^rd in assist to turnover ratio. They have a couple of warts – They are 8^th in three point defense, 11^th in free throw percentage and 11^th in offensive rebounding. It’s their consistency and coaching that makes them click. We might be getting some hissing kitties Saturday afternoon as they coughed up a nine point fourth quarter lead to Missouri State Thursday night in Springfield.

Panthers Dramatis Personae –

UNI’s line-up is a mix of veterans and freshman additions. They did not add any players through the portal.

Grace Boffeli a 6-1 Sophomore Forward, is averaging 15.6 points and leads the team and The Valley in rebounding at 8.4 rebounds per game. She is also second in FG% at 54.4%.

Maya McDermott – 5-6 Sophomore Guard averages 14.3 points and leads the team with 61 assists.

Emerson Green (A.J. Green’s sister) a 5-10 Sophomore Guard averages 10 points a game.

Cam Finley 5-9 Senior guard is averaging 8.6 points per game.

Ryley Goebel is a 5-11 Freshman Forward leads the team with 25 blocks and 28 steals.

Aside from the fourth quarter meltdown they just had; UNI has outpaced their opponents by 89 points in the second half and is +137 in total, over all their games.

Drake Recap And This Game:

Well – I have to say I’m not overly upset with the loss to Drake. We just ran out of gas, physically and mentally. From the 1:04 point of the third to the 3:03 point of the fourth we didn’t score. We didn’t get many good looks which was a combination of their half-court defense (Drake never pressed) and our stagnant movement. For 30 minutes we gave it our best going toe to toe with the most physical team we’ve played since MTSU. Drake runs so many counter plays in one trip, its hard to keep with their offense. Stop the first couple of probes then a third and fourth run comes at you from completely different angles. For their overall size we only lost the rebounding battle by one. They had 19 turnovers, we had 21 – although a lot of them were unforced errors.  

Ashley Jones is a baller. After a bad game at Belmont, she came back and dropped 30 on Drake. That’s the second time she’s set a career high here at Southern. It’s too bad we only get her for one year.

Looking at UNI’s schedule/results, I can’t tell if this game could be a slugfest or a runaway. If we control the game like we did against Drake, and avoid a bad stretch; we could win this. Here’s to hoping!

GO DAWGS!!!

After 1 

Dawgs 22

Purple Prairie Kitties 25

Jones picking up where she left off against Drake had 10 in the quarter. UNI trying to cut off our transition by pulling everyone back during FT's. 

Halftime

God, I love MVC refs. Both teams shooting over 50%

SIU 42

UNI 48

Jones with 16. Williams with 11.

Any time we make a run UNI gets a call they shouldn't then they make a run. COLD shooting in the 3rd. Still at .500 for the game.

After 3 

SIU 58

UNI 72

Of course the next to worst FT shooting team is hitting FT's against us. 23-29 for the game.